From the Spring 2018 issue of UNCG Research magazine
It was an uncommon scene in a small classroom in Randolph County: Four headmasters from rural China seated with a group of enrapt middle-school students, discussing education policy and Southern barbecue.
These Chinese educators, and 14 of their counterparts, spent eight days reflecting with school leaders in some of North Carolina’s most rural counties.
Dr. Ye He, associate professor in UNC Greensboro’s Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education, helmed the visit.
“To prepare global-ready students and lead global-ready schools, educators need to participate in intercultural exchanges,” Dr. He says.
Her mission as a teacher educator is to engage teachers at the local and international level. She emphasizes strengths-based, diverse-language, and culture-centered teaching.
“It’s not about who is learning from whom,” she says. “We all have our various strengths and utilize them in different contexts.”
He’s headmasters project is funded by the Jack Ma Foundation, an organization created by the executive chairman of the world’s largest retailer, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group. One focus of the foundation is the promotion of leadership and management skills for headmasters in rural China.
The foundation chose UNCG as its international partner because of the university’s successes in working with rural educators, including the recent Principal Preparation for Excellence and Equity in Rural Schools initiative led by the School of Education’s Dr. Kimberly Kappler-Hewitt. With $1.8 million from the NC Alliance for School Leadership Development, the initiative is helping 11 North Carolina school districts that are struggling to find and keep effective principals in high-needs schools.
Photography by Mike Dickens
